Reincarnations Book 1 : Antipodes
by Xeenith
Summary: When arriving at the Tendo, Ranma's two forms split. But the female Ranma is sure in not being a Ranma's copy. Who is she? UPDATE chapter 3 finally complete...
1. Prologue : splitting of the curse

Reincarnation  
" " are speaking  
' ' are quotes  
{ } are thoughts  
[ ] are panda sign  
* * are sounds  
---  
Prologue  
---  
  
Everybody was in the sitting room. M. Tendo had his three daughters   
on his right and two men on his left, each group facing the other.  
  
"I present you once more... my best friend..." started Soun Tendo.  
  
"Genma Saotome." said the man dressed in a dirty white gi. He waved   
to the young boy sitting beside him. "This is my son..."  
  
"...Ranma." finished the boy, dressed in a pale blue, sleeveless   
chinese shirt, with matching black trousers, black combat shoes and   
red combat bracers.  
  
He and Akane looked at each other, the former with a questioning look   
and the later more suspicious.  
  
"It's a joke, right?" interjected Nabiki.  
  
"You are... the girl from back then?" asked Kasumi, completely lost.  
  
"Hum. How to start?" Genma wondered. "I know! Hyah!!" He throwed his  
son into the koi pond, located in the middle of the Tendo garden.  
  
"Hey!!" Ranma shouted while airborne. "A...Argh!.... Aaaaargh!!" he  
screamed, just before reaching the water with a loud *SPLASH*  
  
For a while, bubbles were noisily showing on the water. He then broke   
the surface of the water, holding his head with both hands in obvious   
pain.  
  
"Huh... Nyaah!... Ahh... Ahh... AAARGH!!" His pained screams started   
again.  
  
For a second that seemed to never end, he bent himself. His head   
looked like it splitted in two, then all the wooden studs of his   
chinese shirt bursted at once. A naked mass of bare skinned flesh, or   
perhaps a body, was ejected from his torso, splashed in the water and   
vanished into the pond.  
  
"Ahh... Ahh... Pff..." He tried to get his breath back, taking   
support on his knees, his head dangling. "It stopped. So much   
pain..." He raised his head, sending a questioning glare at his   
father and the Tendos.  
  
"What happened?" the only response he got was a stupefied look. He  
finally registered the information his body was sending to him and he  
looked down his bare torso... definitely male. "I... I don't change   
into a girl? I... I'm cured?" he asked to nobody when suddenly...  
  
*BLOOSH* A young girl with fiery hair emerged a few feet from him.  
  
"Ouch..." she groaned. "It hurts!" She looked quickly around  
her. "Where... Where am I?" she took a step back... then  
another... and she bumped into Ranma.  
  
She gently turned toward him and he got the confirmation he feared :   
it was his female self. The shock keept him from making any sensible   
thought, like it might have been the case for his father and the   
Tendos, none of them having told a word yet, their brains trying to   
compute the facts.  
  
She slowly pointed a trembling finger at Ranma while cautiously   
backing away. "You... you are... imposs... I..." Like all others   
present, all rational thinking seemed to have left her. Nonetheless,   
the fact that she can identify Ranma was unmistakable.  
  
"Who... are you?" Ranma managed to ask intelligibly.  
  
"Who I am?" she asked.  
  
She was answered by the shocked silence of her observers.  
  
"I ... I ..." she stammered, as surprise dawns upon her face, then  
it changed to a look of reflection.  
  
Her observers did not bear her any ill will, but their shocked   
silence was somewhat cruel.  
  
"I ... I ..." she stammered again as her face began to show panic.  
  
Seeing her emotional state, Ranma attempted the question that was  
consuming him : "Are you me?"  
  
"WHAT?" If the result attained was not the one looked for, the   
question had the benefits to have apparently calmed her. "If I'm you?   
You are just before me, how can I be you?" she answered him like as   
though he asked a stupid question.  
  
Her declaration, in addition to relaxing Ranma a little, restarted   
the thinking machine that was Nabiki's brain.  
  
"You're not Ranma?" Nabiki asked while nearing the pond.  
  
"Ranma? Ranma... RANMA! YES! It's your name!" she shouted, pointing   
her finger toward him again. "I know you! Ranma Saotome, heir to the   
Saotome school of Anything Goes martial arts!"  
  
"Y...yeah. That's me"  
  
"If you are not him, then who are you?" asked Nabiki a second time.  
  
The redhead turns toward Nabiki and stares at her silently. "I... I  
don't know!" she concedes. "I see things, memories, but they are so  
foreign to me... the more I seek, the more I find events linked to   
the life of... of Ranma... but I cannot remember my name... my   
house... my family..."  
  
Slowly, her posture changed, as she fell into depression.  
  
"I don't know why... but I know that all these memories are Ranma's   
and not mines."  
  
"Ranma..." Nabiki said, cutting into the girl's monologue, "give her  
your shirt." "Hu? oh..." he removed it and gave it to his female   
self.  
  
"Thanks..." she answered him while putting the shirt on, suddenly   
aware of her nudity.  
  
"So, if I assume, you don't know who you are, but you are sure of not  
being Ranma, even if you have the same memory as him?" Nabiki   
analyzed while speaking, her hands on her hips.  
  
The girl nodded, her morale starting to sink even further.  
  
"Hmm... We may not be able to resolve this tonight." Nabiki looked at   
the two, still waist deep in the water. "Say, you can exit the pond  
now. You'll catch a cold if you don't."  
  
They suddenly realized that, yup, they had been standing in the water   
all the while they were chatting.  
  
"Hum, if you're not Ranma, and you don't remember your name, you'll   
have to choose a new one until you get your own memories back. Any   
ideas?" Nabiki asked.  
  
Ranma-chan stopped immediately where she stood, then looked back to  
Ranma-kun. "Ranma... Ra...n...ma... it's strange! I get the   
impression that... that..." the tries to remember something. "Is   
there not a girl name starting like Ranma?"  
  
"Let me see... Ranma? Ran... Ran... There : Ranko... Wild child,   
seems fitting as a female name, seeing that Ranma means Wild horse."   
Declared Nabiki.  
  
"Ranko? I seem to have heard it before, somewhere..." said 'Ranko'.  
  
"It doesn't ring a bell for me..." Ranma said, cutting the girl off.  
  
"Yes? Maybe your memories are already coming back..." Nabiki paused a  
little, then "I think that this name can help you to quicken the   
process, even maybe get some indications..."  
  
"Ranko... yes, after all, it's just a name. Any name will do the   
trick."  
  
"I will have to do some researches... hey, it'll be a real   
challenge..." Nabiki sing-sang while returning to the house, followed   
by the other two. "How do you know that you are not Ranma, by the   
way? If you have the same memories as him, even if it seems strange,   
you should have believed that you were him, no?"  
  
"Well, the memories I have might be mine, but there is this feeling   
that tells me they aren't. I dunno... but then my memories are so   
clear, so well ordered... it ain't normal! Nobody can recall stuff   
that way. It's almost like they were implanted or somethin'. I   
remember all this stuff too well. That's why I think these ain't my   
memories." answered back Ranko.  
  
The three came back into the house and Nabiki sat back at her place,  
thinking. When Ranko were going to sit too, Ranma put a hand on her  
shoulder.  
  
"Ran...ko? Can you come with me, I want to try something."  
  
"Hu... ok!" She followed him and they exit the room.  
  
"What... the... hell... happened?" Akane asked her sister.  
  
"I don't know for sure. But I think our guests just started to   
surprise us." declare Nabiki, half-anxious for the problems to come,  
half-delighted for the spice that the Saotome family would bring into  
her life.  
  
---  
  
Ranma took Ranko to the room where he and his father had put their  
belongings. He got his bag and lead the way through the Tendo  
household.  
  
"Here we are!" he said, entering in a room.  
  
"This is the bathroom? What do you want to do here?" she asked.  
  
"First, I wanna try the curse to see if I'm cured for good or not.   
Then try to see if you are cured too. Lastly, just dry myself and   
change my wet clothes."  
  
"Okay..." She walked toward the furo, still full of hot water. "You  
changed back with hot water, and we stayed into the pond's cold water   
long enough to know that it doesn't change us. My case will be   
quickly resolved." She got in the furo et immerged herself in the hot   
water, warming her body from the pond water's coldness. "I think   
that's clear. Your two forms seem to be really separated from each   
other." She exited the water, took a towel and started to dry her   
hair.  
  
"That's... that's... THAT'S GREAT! I get rid of this curse... huu..."   
He stopped his euphoria to look at his female double. "If I don't   
change into a girl..."  
  
"I don't change into a boy... where is the problem?"  
  
"The problem? you are locked in my cursed body without memories... so  
how can you know if you are a guy or a girl?"  
  
"Oh! That... That's right... I didn't think of it." she said as she   
stopped drying herself. She thought for a moment, then started back   
to dry her hair. "I can't remember. That's not important."  
  
"How's that 'that's not important'? If you are a girl in a girl body,  
okay, but what if you're a guy?"  
  
"If I'm a guy, then I'll know easily. I'll just have to look what's   
the more attractive to me : guys or girls. For now, there is a more   
pressing problem than that."  
  
"Say what?" he asked with a challenging tone.  
  
"Well, look at this, don't have anything more than this body, and it   
was yours less that an hour ago..." She dropped the now wet towel and   
took the shirt off. "I can't see myself taking a walk like this..."   
she told him, showing off her nudity.  
  
"Hu..." He turned backward to stop looking at her. "Yeah..." He went   
his back and took out some clothes. "There should be... yes..." he   
gets his clothes ready, and continued to search on the bag. "I think   
that... eh, eh, eh, your problem is solved..." he said, giving her a   
second pair of pants and a shirt similar to his, if not for the color   
which is red. "I like the blues one better, they bring my eyes out   
more." He added with a mischievous smile.  
  
"You are lending them to me? thanks..." She quickly finished to dry   
up and put her new clothes on, copying Ranma. "Say, you wouldn't have   
a small ribbon or a string for my hair? I want to fasten them."  
  
"You're gonna make a pigtail too?"  
  
"Nah, I was thinking of your old ponytail, before Jusenkyo..."  
  
"Let me look... Yes, I still got the one I used back then. Here." He  
gave her a little black ribbon.  
  
"Perfect!" She fastened her hair. "You already looked at your   
reflection in a mirror? While a girl I mean." she said as she looked   
at theirs images on the great mirror on the bathroom wall. "Look at   
us... One might think that we are twins... TWINS?! excellent!!"  
  
"Hu? What?'  
  
"Look, I haven't anywhere to live, so before my memories come back,   
if I even get some before this splitting, I might as well live   
here... as your twin sister, no?"  
  
"EEHH? My sister? But..."  
  
"The only life I know, it's yours. If we were really twins, then your  
father would have to take me on the training trip too. That will   
explain why I'm a tomboy if I'm really a guy too...  
  
"Yeah... that can work but..."  
  
"I can't lose anything by trying because, precisely, I have nothing!"  
  
"That's true."  
  
"Now that we are refreshed, let's get back there, I have a request to  
make."  
  
---  
  
In the sitting room, everybody got their spirits back.  
  
Genma and Soun were in a corner of the room, making plans, while the  
three Tendo sisters were trying to find a mean to cure Ranko's   
amnesia.  
  
"Yes... doctor Tofu might be able to do something for her." Kasumi  
declared.  
  
"Akane, you'll take her to Tofu's clinic after classes tomorrow."  
  
"Huh, okay, but why me?" asked Akane.  
  
"I'll have some work to do to if she can't be cured... build her a   
new identity, look for some clues of her past... and Kasumi can't do   
it either, for the rather obvious reason." Nabiki answered.  
  
"It's true that amnesic people can need a lot of time before being   
able to be cured..." said Kasumi, totally missing Nabiki's comment.  
  
"If she can be cured someday." finished Nabiki, inducing a look of   
full horror from her sisters. "I prefer to be far-sighted. Ranma and   
his father will live here for some time with this engagement   
affair... we cannot properly throw her out of the house." she added   
to explain herself.  
  
"Oh my! No... of course not." answered Kasumi.  
  
"Stop! Here they are..." noticed Akane just before Ranma and Ranko   
got in the room.  
  
"We are back!" declared a happy Ranko. Ranma followed her, stopping   
the chat between M. Tendo and his father, the two began to cast   
speculative glances at Ranma.  
  
"What have you done this time?" Ranma asked his father, not liking it   
at all when Genma gave him this sort of look.  
  
"Son..." started Genma just before being cut off.  
  
"Ranma..." Soun put a hand on Ranma's shoulder. He then placed   
himself behind Ranma, making the two of them face the Tendo girls.   
"Kasumi, age 19... Nabiki, 17... and Akane, 16. Choose one and   
she'll be your fiancee." Explains Soun.  
  
"Congratulation, Akane!" Nabiki hurried to say, then she whisperd   
"Let's relieve ourselves from this problem so we can focus our   
efforts on Ranko!"  
  
"Father won't stop until one of us is chosen." Kasumi whispered back.  
  
"But... but..." protested Akane vainly.  
  
"Please!" her two sisters begged her.  
  
"But..."  
  
"Good! So it's settled! Akane shall be Ranma's fiancee. I'm proud of  
you, my daughter!" Soun announced dramatically, crying tears of   
happiness.  
  
"Excuse me..." Ranma extricated himself from Soun and walked toward   
his father. "Pop! Me and... Ranko have a request for you..."  
  
"What is it, son?" Genma asked. "You are awfully polite all of   
sudden..."  
  
"M. Saotome, my amnesia, added to the body I have for now on and   
Ranma's memories I got into my head... all of this compels me to ask   
you this : until my own memories come back to me, do you accept me as   
your own daughter, Ranma's twin sister, that followed you and Ranma   
all along the training journey?" she asked, bowing. "I beg you!" she   
added, bowing a little lower.  
  
"hmm..." Genma took some time to think about it. "Your request is  
rather surprising..."  
  
"Mr. Saotome, I think this is a very good idea." Nabiki interjected.   
"I was about to ask her to become a Tendo, but it makes better sense   
for her to become a Saotome, given that she shares all of Ranma's   
memories. Not to mention her looks. Almost anyone who sees them   
together will automatically assume they are brother and sister,   
perhaps even think they are twins."  
  
"But... I don't know if..." Genma tried to plea.  
  
"Saotome, my friend, I think that our children are right about this."   
Added Soun.  
  
"Anyhow, if he doesn't agree, I'll refuse to become Ranma's fiancee!"  
declared Akane, crossing her arms over her chest in a challenging   
position.  
  
"Akane... Nabiki... thank you all, that's very kind of you." Said   
Ranko, tears in her eyes.  
  
"So, Pop! What's you choice? Methinks that Akane ain't gonna back   
off, eh?" Ranma said to his father.  
  
"I... I..." Genma stammered.  
  
"Saotome!!!" threatened Soun.  
  
"Okay! I accept!" He finally agreed.  
  
"Ranko... welcome to the Saotome family!" Ranma congratulated her. He  
then turned toward the Tendo. "Thanks to you all... that was very   
nice of you."  
  
"Good! I have work waiting for me... I need to create her   
identification, we all have school tomorrow after all, haven't we?"   
Nabiki said while sitting up, smiling evilly. She then went upstairs   
and into her bedroom.  
  
"School?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Yes, son, we are going to stay here some time and..." Genma started.  
  
"...And we need some mental training to complete our physical one."   
Ranko recited from her memories. "Well, you did accept my request, so  
from now on, you are my Pop. And you need to get used to the fact   
that I was actually there all along the training trip, because I can   
remember it entirely."  
  
"I see that!" Genma admited.  
  
"Hey, by the way... what do you think of my clothes?" Ranko asked  
"Fitting my new identity, no?"  
  
"Ranko!" her father cut her again. "You say you recall all my son's   
life like it was yours... so you must be at his exact level in   
martial arts."  
  
"Logically, yes." She answered.  
  
"Ranma, Ranko, in the dojo... you two are going to spar a little to  
check this." Genma ordered them.  
  
"But, Pop, you said yourself to never hit a woman!" Ranma shouted   
back.  
  
"You don't need to strike her hard to test her..." retorted the   
father.  
  
---  
  
In the dojo.  
The twins were facing each other, in loose fighting stances.  
  
"Begin!" declared Genma, sitting near the wall, with all the Tendo  
family around him.  
  
"Since you don't want to hit me, I'll start the match." Announced   
Ranko just before dashing forward.  
  
"Come!" Ranma shouted back while shifting his stance to a defensive   
one.  
  
She started with a rain of punches of impressive speed, all blocked   
by Ranma, whose arms are moving as quickly as hers. She then tried   
some killer kick combos that Ranma deflects easily. She backed off a   
few feet, then charged him with a jump.  
  
"Big mistake!" retorted Ranma, launching into the air himself.  
  
They met in mid-air, each kicking the other, but Ranko succeeded in  
passing over Ranma's leg with the help of her arms and hit her twin   
on the shoulder.  
  
"Urgh!" He groaned when he lands on the floor.  
  
"I'm not stupid, I know that being a girl I'm shorter than you...   
however, the warming up was cool. Shall we go on?"  
  
"Hehehe! I like this! It's been a long time since I've had a real  
challenge..." Ranma answered her.  
  
Only Genma was not surprised by the level of skill shown.  
  
"Saotome, your son is very talented." Soun admited to his friend.  
  
"That... that... He really went easy on me." Akane noticed, her   
hatred starting to boil.  
  
While the two fighters resume their fight, Genma analyzed their   
strong and weak points, visibly different. After several minutes of   
hard sparring, he called it off.  
  
"Okay! Stop it you two and come here." Genma said while sitting up.  
  
Reluctantly, they came to a stop and walked to their father.  
  
"Ranko, I'm pleased, very pleased... you are worthy of your name. But  
you Ranma, I'm not happy about you. How do you expect me to train you  
seriously if you hide your real level?" he questioned Ranma.  
  
"You taught me yourself to always keep an ace up the sleeve, if I can  
recall you." Ranma shot back.  
  
"In any case, our styles are different... I use the same moves as   
him,  
but not in the same way." Ranko noticed.  
  
"Your strengths are not the same. I trained Ranma to be good at   
everything, but the curse had modified his body : Ranko is faster,  
lither and seems to bear more pain, but she is weaker in both   
strength and resistance, and her limbs are shorter. All in all, you   
two are on an equal level." Explained Genma. "I'm pleased, I have the   
data I needed, I can plan a new training regimen for Ranko. She'd   
best work on her advantages than trying to fill the gaps between her   
and Ranma in strength and constitution."  
  
*tap* *tap* Akane got Ranma's attention by tapping him on the   
shoulder.  
  
"Eh... yes, Akane?"  
  
"Grr... when you got here, we sparred. You beat me easily when   
holding back! You know how humiliating that can be?"  
  
"Hey! You asked to spar 'just for fun', didn't you? I never use more  
skill than necessary. If I had fought all out, you'd be in the   
hospital, or worse." He defended himself.  
  
"Akane! I'm sorry, but he's right!" added Ranko. "I can recall the  
sparring match as though I did it myself, and I know I'd have done   
the  
same. You need to understand that the stronger you are, the more you  
need to stay aware of yourself."  
  
"That's not what'll make me feel better!" Akane hurled back.  
  
"That's right! But for you to feel better, you'd need to train harder  
than you currently are... Hey, maybe you can train with us? What do   
you think?" Ranko asked, hoping to end this problem.  
  
"Sure!" added Ranma. "We can't train correctly being three, we need   
to be in pairs."  
  
"Akane! It's a great chance for you! You can learn lots of things   
that I don't know. They traveled a lot after all." Soun exclaimed,   
eyes in tears.  
  
"What to you have to lose, anyhow?" Ranko asked the younger Tendo.   
"you can't know before you've tried!"  
  
Akane glared at her, looking divided between trust and anger.  
  
"You asked Ranma, believing he was a girl, to be friends... will you  
take your words back now?" Ranko continued. "Akane, let's be   
friends..." she finished with the same small smile that Akane had   
earlier, when saying the exact same words.  
  
"I... okay!" Akane answered.  
  
"Great!" shouted Ranko. "We haven't had friends for a long time, have   
we, Ranma? When traveling, we didn't stay in the same place long   
enough to make friends."  
  
"Our journey is not complete yet, boy... hmm, girl!" Genma told her.   
"This situation will sure need some time before I can adjust.   
Hehehe!"  
  
"Pop, you'll need to plan a training regime for Akane now, too..."   
Ranma told Genma. "She has some major power in her punches and she   
could do lots of damage... if only she could connect first."  
  
Akane glared angrily at Ranma. "Grrr..."  
  
"Ranma, not everyone is as fast as you... and you were a girl at the  
time too, quicker than you are now. She didn't stand a chance, but to  
say she's bad.... you see what I mean?" Ranko asked her twin.  
  
"Hey! I didn't say that!" he protested.  
  
"Not really, but the way you said it implied that she was bad, in  
comparison with you. Well, one can't keep a normal life and train   
like us. But she'll get better now!" the redhead explained.  
  
"Sure... training with us, you'll get better in a way you don't even  
hope to conceive. After all, I'm the best!" Ranma said to Akane, ego  
full out.  
  
"Ranma... WE are the best. We ended the test with a draw, and I know  
that you and me were fighting nearly all out!" Ranko shot him.  
  
"Humpf!" Akane growled, turning away from the twins.  
  
"Hey! Don't tell me that you are still angry for the bathroom  
accident..?" Ranma asked her, seeing her angry.  
  
"Huh?" apparently, she had forgotten said accident, and to recall her   
of it didn't seem like that good an idea, seeing her changing her   
posture. "PERVERT!!" she screamed.  
  
"Why this 'pervert'? You were the one to walk in on me, and I put the  
occupied sign up!" he retorted.  
  
"How was I supposed to know that MY bathroom was occupied by a 'BOY',  
when the only man in the house I knew of was my father? The only one   
I was expecting to see was a girl!"  
  
"I was naked as well anyhow. So I don't see your problem." He said   
while turning his back to her, his hands crossed behind his head.  
  
"That's not the same! Maniac!" she shouted.  
  
The two fathers laugh together at the quarrel.  
  
"They are the couple of the year!" Soun said to Genma.  
  
"HEY!" interjected Ranko. "Am I the only one sane here? You don't   
find yourselves stupid to shout at each other like that?" she asked   
the engaged couple.  
  
The quarrel ceased instantaneously.  
  
"Good, that's better... If I remember, this accident prevented Akane  
from taking her bath, didn't it?" Ranko asked.  
  
"Of course... how can I bathe when..." Akane answered the redhead.  
  
"Hey! Calm down... go bathe yourself, you need to cool off." Ranko   
said, trying to help Akane to cool down. "*yawn* hmm, all this tired   
me out. I'm gonna sleep... Ranma, the guest room was the one where   
you took your bag from?" she asked her twin.  
  
"Yup! I need to think about some stuff. Go suit yourself." He   
answered her.  
  
A very short time later, the futon was prepared and Ranko fell into a   
deep, refreshing and well deserved sleep, soon to be copied by Ranma.  
  
---  
  
Reincarnation - prologue end 


	2. Chapter 1 : first day of school

Reincarnations  
Book 1 : Antipodes  
---  
" " are speaking  
' ' are quotes  
{ } are thoughts  
[ ] are panda sign  
* * are sounds  
---  
Chapter 1  
First day at school  
---  
  
The sleep was disrupted. The dreams were hunted by visions from the   
past. Everything was turning. Lost. Totally lost in this ocean of   
memories. Bit by bit, all was disappearing to be replaced by a void...   
but a void that was fated to be filled.   
  
So this spirit was flooded, more by concepts than by pictures this   
time...  
  
Hot Cold  
Fire Water  
Light Darkness  
Good Evil  
Life Death  
Yin Yang  
  
A tissue of simple but opposite concepts,... All these forms and ideas   
were assembling with each other, moving, turning in an infinite   
whirlwind.  
  
Again and again, seeming to fail to ever stop, the tissue whirled,   
whirled, whirled...  
  
"Ha!" Her disturbed mind finished to wake up from this strange sleep,   
but the dream didn't fade... "What the hell was that?" She asked to   
herself, while looking where she was.  
  
Near her, illuminated by the feeble light from the rising sun were   
sleeping a young man and another much older.  
  
{Ranma!} she thought, recognizing the boy. The events from the day   
before immediately came back to her. {Good. I know at least where I   
am. No new change then. Hmm...} She thought for a little while.  
  
{Well, the memory still doesn't want to return... and the sun'll soon   
be up. Too late to go back to sleep. I might as well go train a   
little...} she decided while she dressed.  
  
Once the clothes on, a red chinese shirt and a black trouser, she   
silently exited the room, then the house and went to dojo.  
  
Followed then a few series of complex katas. For any other martial   
artist, to perfect them would be a dream come true, but for someone   
like her, it was more like a warm up.  
  
While she went through the katas, she saw the dream again, sorting the   
pictures and analyzing them. It was only when her mental work was   
successful that she allowed herself to stop the katas. When she   
finally opened her eyes, she noticed her twin at the dojo entrance,   
looking at her with interest.  
  
"You seemed a little preoccupied with something while working out."   
Ranma said her.  
  
"Yup. I had a very strange dream, it waked me up." Ranko answered him.  
  
"Let me guess... a big whirlwind?" he asked her.  
  
"Correct, I see that it waked you up too. I was thinking about it   
while training."  
  
"I did some thinking too, after I saw that you were already up. Didn't   
get anything useful though."  
  
"I got no great result myself, but I know one thing for sure. The   
opposite concepts separated themselves on two groups before they   
started to whirl one around the other." She told him.  
  
"That's all? I had a vague feeling that each of the two 'groups', like   
you said, were each linked to one of us."  
  
"hmm... if that's the case, what could be the first group, before all   
the concepts separated themselves on these two groups?" Ranko asked.  
  
"I dunno. We don't even know how you got on my girl body."  
  
"Our two bodies were one and the same before the curse... like the two   
concept groups! Is it possible that the curse had separated the   
concepts in two groups and rejected the unwanted group in the cursed   
body?"   
"It would explain the separation, but where you spirit could come   
from?" asked Ranma.  
  
"The girl body was the one rejected. What if my spirit came from the   
same method. If the concepts that stayed behind are yours, then maybe   
my mind was made by the rejected concepts, with your own mind as a   
model."  
  
"It'd mean that without this accident yesterday, you'd never even   
existed?"  
  
"the more I think about it and the more it seems to be the truth. If   
it's really the case, then, I'm just a reflection of your mind."  
  
"It doesn't seem to move you that much." Ranma retorted.  
  
"As long as we don't know for sure, I prefer to act like nothing   
happened. It could explain how I got all your memories and no one from   
myself, though. I'm really your twin sister, eh, eh, eh!"  
  
"Stop that, it's not funny."  
  
"I never said it was. We don't even know if my group was male or   
female..." she noticed absently.  
  
"If you are my reflect, you must be a girl inside too." Ranma said   
her.  
  
"You seem pretty sure of yourself, bro. And if it was you that had a   
girl spirit inside?"  
  
"Impossible. I'm a guy!"  
  
"Maybe I'm one too, in a girl body... In any case, even if you are a   
cute guy, I'm not the least aroused by you." She teased him.  
  
"Pff... if we are really twin, we can't be attracted by each other."   
Ranma rationalized.  
  
"You don't think I'm cute? I sure thought I were. If we were two   
girls, I'd have asked you on a date." She teased him.  
  
The twin's chatting was interrupted by the soft voice of Kasumi.  
  
"Oh, it's you. You were training? The bath is ready... go take it   
while I'm cooking breakfast."  
  
"good morning Kasumi." Ranma greeted her.  
  
"You are getting up pretty early... you are working hard." Ranko said   
to Kasumi, smiling.  
  
"Yes." Kasumi answer, returning the smile before going back to the   
kitchen.  
  
"Ranma, shall we go? We are not giving Pop a good reason to steal our   
breakfast, aren't we?" Ranko asked her twin.  
  
"Yup, he is taking enough advantages like that without... Hey! How   
that 'shall we go' ?"  
  
"You afraid that I bite you, bro?" Ranko teased her twin again, while   
dragging him to the bathroom.  
  
---  
  
Later, following the canal side. Akane and the twins were going to   
school.  
  
"We will never get married! You know that?" Akane asked Ranma.  
  
"Sure!" Ranma answered back, following Ranko on the fence.  
  
"So, at school, you keep your distances!" Akane continued to verbally   
assault the male martial artist.  
  
"Be relieved! I hate chauvinist girl in your..." Ranma started to   
retort her when...   
  
*toom, toom, toom, KA-POW*  
  
"Pop ?! Wh...?" Ranma asked his father after being clobbered on the   
head.  
  
"You're not in situation to choose your wife! Listen Ranma! I'm gonna   
tell you something!" Genma announced, but...  
  
*doink* Ranma tackled him so that the fat martial artist fall in the   
canal.  
  
"It was meant to be." Ranko lamented herself.  
  
"Yes? You wanted to tell me something?" Ranma asked his panda-turned-  
father as the animal jumped back on the fence to start a fight.  
  
Ranma dodged the first blow with a fancy somersault, landing perfectly   
in the middle of the street, smiling.  
  
"Eh, eh, eh!"  
  
*splash*  
  
...just before being splashed by an old lady with a ladle.  
  
"Fortunately, you aren't cursed anymore, bro, or else you'd have   
changed. On the other hand, you seem to as much a cold water magnet as   
you were." Ranko tell her twin.  
  
The panda sighed before walking back to the Tendo house, unable to   
share his knowledge, while depressed about the strange, miraculous   
cure of his son.  
  
{At least is he twice the martial artist he were!} thought the panda   
in order to convince himself that the situation had a positive effect,   
to offset the fact that he didn't get cured too.  
  
"Let's hurry or we'll be late." Akane said, starting to run.  
  
Having no objection to give, the twins chased after her, Ranko jumping   
down to join her brother on the road. The more the three of them were   
coming close to the school, the more Akane seemed to mutter something.  
  
"Akane, you got a problem?" Ranko asked her.  
  
"I hate BOYS!" Akane screamed just when the trio reached the grids of   
the school. Akane was immediately rushed by a horde of boys, all   
dressed in several sport uniforms.  
  
The Saotome twins, choosing wisely to not interfere without knowing   
what it was all about, jumped on the wall circling the school.  
  
The boy brigade was trying to fight Akane, but they were quickly   
beaten in unconsciousness by a fury-like Akane.  
  
"Akane, go out with me!"  
"No, I love you more than him!"  
  
Finally, winner of the fray, Akane was standing in the middle of the   
unconscious bodies of her would-be suitors, lying on the floor.  
  
"Every day, it's the same thing. It's becoming tiresome." Akane was   
bemoaning while catching her breath.  
  
"You can say that again." A new voice stopped her, a kendoist this   
time. "Forcefully, if one of them were to beat you, you'd be bound to   
date him." He finished while posing.  
  
Ranma, willing to understand what all that was about, jumped down to   
Akane. It got him to be defied by Kuno, the said kendoist, the fool   
presenting himself like he was nothing less than a God's gift to   
women.  
  
The storm was now starting to rumble while the two men where facing   
each other. Ranma dodged easily the first bokken thrust, which sliced   
in the outer wall of the school. Then he dodged in the same manner the   
second hit, which cut the tree where Ranma had landed after his first   
dodge.  
  
Ranma then entered in the weak defense of his opponent, in order to   
explain himself. But his words, quite insulting toward Akane, didn't   
do much that get the fight to go on.  
  
A new bokken slash was dodged with a jump, placing Ranma above Kuno,   
two fingers ready to strike. The two fighters meet when the first drop   
of rain fall on the mud, Ranma hitting Kuno on the forehead while the   
kendoist brushed only Ranma's neck.  
  
Ranma, used to his short-lived curse and the change linked to cold   
water, was greatly surprised to not change this time and he sort of   
stopped all movement. Ranko, watching the fight with great interest,   
saw it immediately and jumped in action.  
  
With a mighty mid air kick to Kuno that put some distance between   
Ranma and the bokken, she gripped Ranma's forearm and made another   
jump, taking her brother with her in a safer, and dryer, place.  
  
---  
  
A little later, Class 1-F.  
  
"Miss and mister Saotome, it appears that you are just coming right   
from China. Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that you two and miss   
Tendo were... late. Take the door." Ordered the teacher.  
  
Out of the class, the teens now had a bucket full of water in each   
hand. Akane then explained to the Saotome twins about the morning   
fights, not without blaming Ranma for her being late.  
  
"So, you fight Kuno each morning ?" Ranma asked her.  
  
"No, I beat him each morning!" she answered cockily.  
  
But the twins knew better after seeing her fight with the boys. This   
Kuno boy was slightly better than her.  
  
"Bah... against a girl, he can't go full out..." started Ranma.  
  
"Don't underestimate me." The offended Tendo warned him. "You want to   
try me ?"  
  
"Already done... yesterday's evening. You didn't even come close to   
hit us." Ranko countered, intending to get Akane's feet back on earth.   
"You may be the best of this school, but there is always someone   
stronger... in your case : us."  
  
Ranma then barely dodge a splash of water.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, I won't allow it! I'll never accept... your engagement   
to Akane Tendo !" shouted bokken-for-brain Kuno, causing the   
classmates to swarm at the windows.  
  
The young and unwilling couple started to find excuse like "it's not   
our ideas" or "it was our fathers' ideas", but Kuno in his furry   
(lunacy?) started to attack Ranma and then ran after him in the   
corridors.  
  
"It's not a pace to fight, come on!" asked Ranma to the kendoist.  
  
"That I may!" returned Kuno.  
  
With but a single look exchanged, Akane and Ranko went after them too   
to see the fight. Ranma seeing an open window used it to jump outside,   
mimicked by Kuno.  
  
"Hey! That's the third floor!" someone shouted.  
  
"Hu..?" Kuno seemed to have moved faster than his brain could follow.  
  
"So what?" asked Ranma, his training allowing him to land from such a   
fall without problem.  
  
Fortunately for Kuno, and to some extend to Ranma too, there was a   
pool just below them to catch their fall. Seeing this, Ranko made up   
her mind and jumped after the fighters.  
  
Ranma quickly got out of the pool, but Kuno was a little stunned and   
when the shock was gone from his system, the one he saw in front of   
him was the other Saotome. He caught her, grabbing a breast   
unknowingly, thinking she was Ranma.  
  
This was not the thing to do, so Ranko, angered by the grabbing,   
caught Kuno head behind her and with all the strength she could use,   
thrown him on the pool's edge, using it to extract herself from the   
water and land a few feet apart her brother.  
  
"Why did you followed us, Ranko? It's my fight!" Ranma asked her.  
  
"To have a seat in front line to see the fight. Your opponent is   
waiting for ya. Beat him into a pulp, or I'll do it for ya. That   
bastard dared to grab my breasts." She explained while Kuno was moving   
closer to us.  
  
"Saotome! How dare you to ask a girl to fight at your place? Coward!"   
shouted Kuno.  
  
"Ranma and me are the same person. Body and soul. So we do as we wish   
to do, okay? A pervert like you has nothing to say." Ranko warned him.  
  
With these words, a small volcano seemed to erupt directly from the   
insane kendoist's head. "Body and soul!? Tyrant!" Kuno started to   
attack Ranma, more violently this time.  
  
"You didn't understand it." Said Ranma.  
  
"Shut up! I see it all... Enslaver!" Kuno slashed the tree Ranma was   
in front of only seconds before.  
  
"Go get your head examined!" yelled Ranma.  
  
"I'll crush you and free her from her chains!" Kuno continued his   
speech while vainly trying to hit Ranma, but Ranma caught the bokken   
while airborne and use it as leverage to double kick Kuno savagely.  
  
"If you lose, you forgot about the whole affair, okay?" Ranma asked.  
  
But his sole answer was...  
  
"Playing is over!" said Kuno as he prepared his attack. "Strike!   
Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!" he yelled punctuating each   
yell with a bokken thrust.  
  
"wh..." Ranma, surprised by the attack, managed anyway to wave between   
the bokken strikes, but the concrete wall behind him had not that   
chance, and didn't resist the air pressure of the attack.  
  
"Ahhh!" yelled Akane, hiding behind the cracking wall, having since   
then joined Ranko in watching the fight.  
  
"Stand back, idiot!" Ranma warned her.  
  
"Focus on the fight, I got her!" Ranko assured her bro.  
  
"You're mine!" shout Kuno victoriously while striking a last time on   
Ranma's back.  
  
*vwoosh*  
  
Ranma counter attacked Kuno in a quarter of a second, hitting him with   
a shower of kicks, despite his delicate airborne position. Kuno   
managed a smile before collapsing, face down.  
  
Akane walked toward Kuno and returned him on his back, showing for all   
to see a dozen foot prints.  
  
"My god... you spared none of his sensitive points." Said Akane,   
amazed.  
  
"The 'Blue Thunder'... he didn't last long." Ranma praised himself.  
  
"You got him good, but you were soft with him compared to what I would   
have done myself. With all the crap he said on me." Said Ranko.  
  
"Ranko? What do you mean?" Akane asked to the redhead.  
  
"First, he grabs my breast. Then, he insults Ranma, thinking he wanted   
me to replace him for the fight, in fear of losing. And finally, he   
thoughts I was Ranma's sex slave or something like that. If he ever,   
EVER, dares to touch me again... I can't promise he'll walk away from   
it."  
  
The three returned to class, waiting for the day to be.  
  
---  
  
***  
  
And thus the school day came to an end. The teens returned home,   
stopping by Doctor's Tofu office for the twins' appointment.  
  
"Hello Doctor!" called Akane while entering the office.  
  
"My, Akane... I didn't see you lately, no new injury?" enquired Tofu.  
  
"No, I don't exercise lately." She answered him.  
  
"And who are your friends? I never saw them in the neighborhood." Tofu   
asked, looking at the twins. Being a martial arts master himself, he   
knew then were good just by seeing the way the moved.  
  
"They are guests, our fathers are friend." Akane told him.  
  
"Hi Doc! I'm Ranma Saotome, nice to meet'cha."  
  
"And I'm Ranko, his twin sister. Well, sort of..." Ranko added. "In   
fact, that's why we are here."  
  
"Hmm, what can I do for you?" asked the good doctor while scratching   
his neck, not understanding what was the problem.  
  
"Well, to be blunt : do you believe in magic?" asked Ranma.  
  
"Well, that's a rather strange question here..." Tofu answered.  
  
"Doctor, believe them, I was there and I saw it all. I still don't   
believe it, but I can swear that they are telling you the truth."   
Akane explained to the Tofu.  
  
"Very well then, what is the problem?" He asked to the twins.  
  
"Up until yesterday, we were one. I got this curse at the cursed   
springs of Jusenkyo..." started Ranma.  
  
"Excuse me, did you said Jusenkyo?" interrupted Tofu.  
  
"Yep, ya already heard of it?"  
  
"Just some legends I read here and there. But you saying you went   
there is making me think about it twice, since it proves that it   
exists." Tofu informed them.  
  
"Well, I wish I never heard of it. But to go on with the story, I got   
cursed there. You see, there are all these springs with bamboo poles   
stuck in them, the site is named like that for a reason after all. And   
of course, each spring is cursed. If you fall in a spring, you take   
the shape of the last thing that drowned in it. In my case, it was the   
Nyannichuan or spring of drowned girl." Ranma said.  
  
"But all that changed yesterday. The cursed form split from Ranma. Up   
'til yesterday, Ranma was an only child. SO the question we have is :   
if I'm just a curse, where did my spirit came from. I got all of   
Ranma's memories, but I know they are not mines, so I'm not just a   
copy of Ranma." Ranko explained.  
  
"That's... different. I don't know what to say. What do you need me   
for, if I may ask?" enquired the doctor.  
  
"Well, my sisters thought you might be able to help them to at least   
understand what happened yesterday." Akane told Tofu.  
  
"Hmm... I don't know what to say. A minute ago, I didn't even think   
this sort of magic existed... I can at least see if you are fit   
physically. We can't know for sure what this split did to your body.   
You two seem fine but it's best to check it to be sure." The good   
doctor informed them.  
  
"yeah, it's good and all, but even if there is damage, the problem is   
of magic nature. What can you do against something like that?" Ranko   
asked him.  
  
"More than you think, I studied chinese pressure points and I can feel   
one's chi. So I think I can manage to detect any damage done to your   
auras." Tofu told the amazed teens.  
  
"Wow... very impressive." Noted Ranma.  
  
"You bet! Ok then, since the curse, aka me, was extracted from Ranma's   
body, you might as well start with him for the checkup." said Ranko.  
  
"Ranma, if you may lay down here." The doctor instructed the pigtailed   
martial artist.  
  
The doc skillfully examined Ranma's body, pressing precise points here   
and there, pausing each time like he watched something only he could   
see. After a while, the doctor was done and told Ranma he could get   
up.   
  
"Ranko, your turn please." Said Tofu gently.  
  
Again, the doctor hands pressed various points on the redheaded girl's   
body, and a paused each time, nodding a few times. When he was done,   
Ranko got up and waited for the doctor to tell them what he found.  
  
"For starter, you two have same chi frequencies. This is unseen even   
in the case of twins, which confirm the split story. I believed you   
when you told me but I got proof you were right. Now, even if you have   
the same frequencies, your chi auras are quite different, nearly   
opposite in fact. Even if your auras are still balanced somehow, you   
got a nearly 'all-or-nothing' imbalance in your yin-yang proportions."   
The doctor paused a little to let the teens integrate what he was   
telling them. Then he pursued to tell them his discoveries.   
  
"Ranma got only Yang while Ranko got all the Yin. Maybe that what   
caused the split, since Yang is a more manly chi while Yin is more   
womanly. Your auras have a cold and hot feeling respectively too. I   
cannot tell if there was some damage done by the split, you two seem   
fine, physically at least, but these differences in your auras are not   
healthy and we need to watch it. We don't know what it can cause. No   
normal human body can live without both yin and yang, but again this   
was done by a powerful magic so... I think that's it." Tofu finished   
with a serious face.  
  
"..." the three teens stayed silent a while, collecting their thoughts   
about what the doc just told them.  
  
"Ranma...?" Ranko asked her twin.  
  
"Yeah?" He aswered softly.  
  
"You think that the dream we had this morning have somehow a link with   
this aura thingy?" She wondered, looking at the floor.  
  
"Could be... you know what that mean for ya, don't ya?" He whispered   
while walking toward her.  
  
"What dream are you two talking about?" Akane enquiered.  
  
Ranko's head shot up to look at Akane, she then aswered the youngest   
Tendo.  
  
"That was one hell of a strange dream... I got my head filed with   
ideas, notions, concepts... it twirled for a while before splitting   
into two groups... Ranma and me thought this morning that maybe the   
two groups could reprensent us, with what happened yesterday."  
  
"If what you are telling me is effectively related to the curse   
splitting, then maybe the curse used Ranma's mind to make up a new   
mind for the new body..." Tofu explained from what he knew.  
  
"Yup... If that's true, then I'm just some flesh construction... I   
didn't have a life before this splitting. I don't need to wait for   
previous memories to come back... I don't even know if my mind was   
made to be male or female..." Ranko said, eyes shimmering with unsheed   
tears.  
  
"Ranko, don't see it like that. You're alive and well. This splitting   
gave you the chance to live..." Akane told her strange redheaded   
friend.  
  
"Hey, I'm not gonna kill myself over something like that, I'm just   
relieved to know where I come from. I just need to find out if I'm   
male or female in my mind... Then, I'll just have to live and see by   
myself who I am and what is my place on this world... I'm truely   
Ranma's sister now." Ranko told to Akane, smiling sadly.  
  
"Ranko, for what's it's worth, I'm sorry it had to come to this for me   
to get cured if this curse. Even more so if you find out you're a boy   
too." Ranma said to his twin.  
  
"Don't worry, I'm happy you are cured, I got all your memories and I   
know what a pain it was for you. And you don't have to be sorry about   
me being alive, it's a great chance I got and I intend to live it   
fully!" Ranko beamed.  
  
"I suggest you two sleep on it, the day must have been hard on you and   
you'll need all the rest you can get." The doctor told them. "If you   
have any problem at all, or if you just need to talk, I'll be here for   
you. Don't hesitate, I'll be happy to help you."  
  
"Thank you so much, Doctor Tofu. Well, I think it's time we got   
home..." Akane said, starting to walk toward the exit of the room.  
  
"Yeah, thanks doc, you were a great help to understand all this..."   
Ranma added, following his fiancee.  
  
"Bye, doc, see ya next time." Ranko finished, closing the walk toward   
the exit.  
  
"It has been a pleasure. Have a safe walk home." Tofu said while   
walking with them to the door.  
  
---  
  
Reincarnation Chapter 1 - End 


	3. Chapter 2 : Ranko's Diary

Reincarnations Book 1 : Antipodes  
---  
" " are speaking  
' ' are quotes  
( ) are thoughts  
---  
Chapter 2  
The Lost, the Crazy, the Self-Centered Duo... and the Amazon.  
--- 

Dear Diary,

Darn, I wish Akane didn't succeeded in pushing me to start a diary... Well, she did and I might as well try it, before giving up. Might be useful, who know? Oh, you must be asking yourself how I came into this, let's just say that I tried to talk to Akane, to see if she could help me to find out if I was a boy or a girl. That's when she told me she wrote a diary, like all the girls she knew. So, just to humor her, I'm trying to write one myself... But I stay skeptic.

What to say? Or rather, how to start? I know : Ryoga Hibiki, the eternal lost boy. He finally found Ranma and had a grudge with him. Who would have thought that losing the bread race everyday, in junior school, would start such a hatred in him? No sooner than he found Ranma, the lost boy got lost, only to come back a week later to challenge Ranma.

The fight went well, until Akane followed the two fighters when they jumped the sports field, she wanted to watch all the match. Of course, she nearly got caught by Ryoga's razor sharp bandannas, "only" losing a good length of her hair, putting a definite stop to the fight when the two challengers tried to make up for the hair cut, and apologized.

I can understand that she was angry at Ryoga for launching his bandannas carelessly, but why did she have to hit Ranma too, uh? She was the one wanting to be here to help "just in case"... Ahh, as if Ranma could need any help from her in a fight. Only I could have helped him, but Ranma would not take it well, like we were thinking he couldn't manage himself in a fight. He'd be wrong, about me anyway, because having the same memory as him, I know how he think and I respect him as a martial artist.

The first week after my "birth", Akane was gentle and all. And I didn't really put some effort to see past this facade. But this event showed me another face of Akane, in fact the same face she wear each time she "spar" with Ranma : the ill tempered girl with no control over her anger.

I'm truly starting to dislike her. She acts like she owns Ranma or something. Well, me alive, my bro is going to be free to do as he wants, that I swear.  
C  
Same day into the raining night, Ryoga found the dojo and attacked a sleeping Ranma... and he dares to talk about honor? Talk about self-centered, make me thing about a certain uncute tomboy. Well, to make the story short, the lazy panda hit the two boys with a sign that projected them outside, Ranma got a free bath into the pond. Waked up by all the noise, I got to the window to see what it was all about.

The fight between Ranma and Ryoga was short, Ryoga mentioning he followed Ranma up to China and Jusenkyo. Akane, apparently thinking Ryoga was a robber, launched a weight at him that hit him on the head. The shock made him lose his umbrella, only thing protecting him of the cold rain. Ryoga then jumped the wall and ran into the night. Ranma later found his clothes but no trace of him

A little later, while Ranma was still searching for Ryoga's cursed form, I heard noises coming from Akane's room. She was attacked by a little black pig with a familiar yellow collar... We met Ranma into the sitting room, with a dog. The dog was the neighbor's and not Ryoga.

Ranma then went to take a bath, he was felling dirty with all the cold rain that plastered his clothes on his body. Akane asked him to bathe the pig too, well that's Akane for you. After a yell, Akane and me saw Ranma running after the pig, trying to clobber it with a bath tool. Akane took the "poor piggy's" defense, nor even hearing Ranma's excuses.

She kissed the pig's snout and took it with her to bed. Ranma then told me that the pig was in fact Ryoga, as I had thought. He wanted to go get the pig after Akane went to sleep but I told him to let her be. We will always be able to reveal P-chan's (Akane really have no imagination for names) true identity later.

Yep, I'm truly starting to dislike Akane. Let her be a fool with her cute piggy for a while. I'm waiting to see her face when I'll tell her it was Ryoga all along. He he he.

---

'Dear Diary',

Yet another entry. I didn't think I'd open this thing again, but seems I was wrong. Well, we meet with Kuno's sister who's name is Kodachi. As loony as her brother, she's on the cheating side. She attacked the gymnastic team of my school just so they won't able to participate in the next competition.

Of course, I was there when she was literally whipping our school team's asses, with a ribbon too. Seems she knows her thing to be able to use something like THAT into a weapon. I helped the girls (thinking they were guys since they were all bandaged up) who recognized me and I took them to the dojo.

After a short explanation, Akane was asked to take their place in the competition and she accepted. Or course, her training was disastrous, with her having neither grace nor coordination. And she even hurt herself, bad enough she won't be able to fight.

I refused when they wanted me to take Akane's place at first, but then I remembered Kodachi's little visit to my school. She announced that once she's won, Ranma's be hers. I didn't say anything on the moment but I started to think on how to make sure she never showed up for the fight, her loss would be so much more ironic if I used the same method she liked so much.

Anyway, since I'm starting to be tired of writing, I'll just end this by telling, or is it writing, you this : I sneaked up in her house at night (I just had to follow Kuno without him knowing to get their address), and used her own poisonous roses to drug her, then tie her up. The most difficult thing was to put her where nobody would find her, so I put her in her black roses garden, covered with as much of the cursed flowers I could find.

It was hard not to grin the next day when Kodachi's school couldn't present their champion, thus getting us victory for this year without a fight. Damn I'm good!

---

Argh! Not in the mood for a long explanation here.

Today was, for now, the worst day in my so short life.

While we were doing ice skating (or in Ranma and I cases, trying to stand on the damn ice), some airhead stole little P-chan from Akane, giving him the ridiculous name of Charlotte (Ryoga will never hear the end of it...). Her teammate, playboy and as stupid as the airhead, gave Akane back the pig but tried to kiss her "to make up for his partner's actions".

Ranma being here couldn't let that freak do.

While the airhead was trying to get "Charlotte" back, I went behind her and downed her with a simple hit on her neck.

The guy who tried to kiss Akane (don't know how she can get that much boys after her when she hates them) turned toward me, giving Akane the time she needed to knock him down too, a bit more painfully than me but I won't complain.

We quickly left the place and never even heard again about these two. They didn't heard our names nor did we got theirs.

---

Shampoo tracked us down to Nerima and found us juuust after we were done with the airheads on ice duo. Even if I'm not really the one that fought her on the damn Amazon tournament, I'm wearing the body guilty of victory.

And so the purple haired Amazon went for the kill but I managed to lose her during the fight. But surprise ! She was already at the Tendon's place when I got there, she followed our damn panda of a father, she's not as stupid as her broken Japanese could let suppose.

Ranma shielded me even if he knows I don't need it, but his honor and duty can't let me fight for my life alone if he can help it. Turn out there is an opposite Amazon law concerning a 'male' victor : the Kiss of Marriage.

Damn can my bro attract girls like flies to a moth. But it gave us a few minutes (yeah, she did kiss him THAT long) after he accidentally knocked her down. When he got her to let him go, we told her about us being separated a few days before and she couldn't achieve both kiss. For all we know, if one of us die, the other could die too.

That got her to doubt long enough, seeing we were sincere. She told us she would get some advise about what to do about both kiss, and she left, but what the other didn't catch on is that I got her law book before she left.

Since I read some Japanese translated rules, I know she won't get a 'welcome back' greeting, and in some sadistic way she'll be punished because of me, I'm not supposed to exist after all.

Damn it all, I can't let her be killed or worse because of me, my life is not worth her blood on my hands... and I can't stop thinking about her face, smiling to Ranma with light tears in her eyes.

To anyone that may find this book after I'm gone, know that I went after her. I don't know if I'll be able to come back but wish me luck, I may need it.

Ranko Saotome.

---

A sad look passed on Kasumi's face as she reached the end of the last entry of the diary. she found it on the top of the trash can when she prepared it to get it out for the next day to be collected.

"Oh my! Good luck, Ranko-chan." Whispered the motherly Tendo, watching as the last ray of sun was shining on the land before disappearing, leaving only a slight redness along the skyline.


	4. Chapter 3 : killed by water

Reincarnations Book 1 : Antipodes -  
" " are speaking ' ' are quotes ( ) are thoughts -  
Chapter 3 Killed by water, Reborn by fire.  
---

Ranko knew she was approaching the cursed springs, she could already see some of the bamboo poles. Then she noticed something sounding like a fight... right over the springs ?

She started to run faster, and faster, pushing her limits to prevent anybody to suffer the same fast as Ranma and her father, or even Ryoga.

It shocked her to see that one of the fighters was none other than Shampoo, and she seemed to be losing, and losing bad. Her opponent, a shriveled old woman, was using a walking cane twice as longer than her and used it skillfully to pogo from pole to pole.

(Why are they fighter over the springs. The Amazons are living near Jusenkyo, they can't ignore the curses. Except if the goal of that practice is not to lose to not get cursed ? Nah, that would be something stupid Pop would come with.) tought Ranko, putting some more strength in her legs and letting go of her pack to gain even more speed.

Seeing Shampoo weakening some more, Ranko focused her last strength into a final burst, hoping to reach them in time.

(I knew Shampoo should have to face a punishment like their laws ask for after a failure, but surely they wouldn't dare...)

Shampoo failed to block an attack that sent her flying, straight into a spring. Jumping to meet her in the air, Ranko stroke Shampoo with a violent mid-air kick, augmenting her momentum and sending her to crash on safe dry land.

(Success! She won't fall in water!) Ranko shouted mentally, just before realizing all her own momentum was wasted in the kick and she was about to know the fate that was supposed to be Shampoo's.

"Ohhh craaaap!" she just had time for one last scream before hitting the water with a big splash.

---

Shampoo felt a strong pain in the back as well as a brief acceleration before she crashed on the grass near the spring she was about to fell into.

(That voice ? was it Ranko? But what would she be doing there, if she's the once that pushed me?) Shampoo mind was wondering the identity of her savior while slowly getting on her feet. She noted her Grandmother standing on the other side of the pool, watching the swirl of water proving that indeed someone had just fell into the pool.

"Grandmother, what happened?" Shampoo asked her elder, slightly puzzled.

"Someone pushed you out of the way as you were about to fell into that pool. She fell in your place and looked like the girl you didn't want to kill." Explained the elder.

Cologne noted that the air bubbles that were breaking the surface of the water weren't simple air bubbles anymore, it was more like the water itself was coming close to boiling point.

"Move away Shampoo, there is something strange going on. It could be dangerous." Cologne ordered her charge, herself getting some distance between her and the bubbling water.

The boiling seamed to reach a peak then a figure emerged, radiating a shining red aura. It really was Ranko, looking like she was in great pain.

"Aaargh... this pain again... just like the separation... I fell like I'm on fire!" explained Ranko, getting out of the water before dropping on her knees. She noticed Shampoo standing near her the elder.

"H... help... me..." the redhead implored the two Amazons, then she lost her grip on her balance and fell on her face, all the while her reddish aura shining and burning more and more.

"Ranko!" screamed Shampoo, wanting to help the small japanese warrior, but stopped herself because of all the heat radiating from the redhead. "Grandmother, we must help her!"

"But isn't she the one you were to kill?" Cologne asked her, a calculating look on her face.

"Shampoo don't care! Ranko don't deserve to die like this. Kiss of Death was a mistake since Ranma was boy anyway." Shampoo shouted.

"Very well. But she'll have to settle things right as long as your honor isn't washed with marriage or blood." Cologne explained to the lavender haired Amazon. She walked as near Ranko as she could, using her own blueish aura to keep the heat from harming her.

"Ranko! I'll help you since Shampoo asked me, but for this I need you to get back on your feet!" Shouted Cologne so the words could be heard over the pain filling the redhead's mind.

"Huu... no... no prob... problem!" Ranko answered proudly, starting to brave the pain and slowly getting on all four then back on her knees.

"Catch this! It's a pill that will stop the pain! It'll buy us some more time to find a solution to this heat problem of yours." Cologne thrown a small scarlet pill to Ranko who gulped it immediately, before the heat had any chance to damage it.

"Grandmother! Wasn't it the phoenix pill?" asked Shampoo, astonished.

"That it was, but with all that heat, it was the only way to get us more time."

For a while, Ranko's aura seemed to diminish and her pain disappeared. Then the heat started to rise yet again, faster, and the scarlet aura was shining anew.

"What?" Cologne screamed. "Her pain should have stopped! What the...?" but she was interrupted in her wondering when Ranko's clothes started to burst into flames under the enormous heat generated by the redhead's body and aura. Her skin was also forming dark spots.

"Grandmother, you promised, but instead of helping her, the pill is finishing to kill her!" shouted Shampoo, her eyes watering with small tears.

"Silence! This could not have happened. The heat was not to disappear but the pill should have prevented Ranko to feel any pain from it. Sadly there is nothing more I can do for her now."

"YAaaaaAAAARGH!" Ranko screamed in pain at the flames eating her flesh. Even her great resilience had long reached it's limit and Ranko fell to the ground again, luckily for her she had lost consciousness.

The flames, having finished to burn the clothes, were burning the petite body all over, and the fire gained in amplitude, being fed by the scarlet aura still as bright.

"Shampoo, let's leave this cursed place. Your honor is safe now and you need not be punished anymore." Cologne declared to her charge, walking with heavy feet.

"Yes, Grandmother." Sadly acknowledged Shampoo, following the elder after giving a last look to the corpse finishing to be burnt to cinders, heartbroken that she couldn't help the one that prevented her to be cursed by this doomed place.

The flames finished their dark task, and as the reddish aura had winked out with the last traces of Ranko's life, the fire never lost in intensity, getting even bigger and reaching higher than the bamboo pointing out of the pools all around.

Suddenly, the charred corpse exploded literally, sending embers everywhere, as the flames grew again, their form changing in an instant to take the form of... a giant bird of fire, like the phoenix itself.

"By the ancestors." Whispered Cologne with fright while watching this.

In the flames, a shadow was drawn, taking a human figure. And as the flames were being focused around this shadow, it seemed to be hovering gently, getting closed to the ground before settling on the same spot Ranko has been.

The fire finally toning down as a simple aura encircling the body of this newcomer, letting the face appear... The one of Ranma! Save for the hair being brown and the eyes the color of blood, this man was the perfect copy of Ranma.

Taking a long breath, then letting all the air out, he talked.

"The pain is gone at last. I feel much better now... But what happened exactly?" he asked the two Amazon, puzzled.

"be calm, my boy. Tell me, do you know who you are? Are you the young girl named Ranko?" asked Cologne to the brown haired boy.

"Hu? Are you going senile, old ghoul? You just gave me your magic pill!" exclaimed the young boy, proving that he was indeed Ranko.

"Then get a look at your body, sonny boy, because you didn't noticed it yet but you're a boy again." Cologne noted for him.

"Hey! That's true! Wow... I wonder the face Ranma will do when I'll tell him, hehehe!" He cried out.

"On the other hand, you should do something for those flames that you're generating, don't you think?"

"I was beginning to wonder if I was dreaming or something. I don't feel heat... hmm let's see... hmmm..." focusing, Ranko-kun relaxed and the flames weakened until they winked out.

"Coool... but my clothes were burned good... Where the hell did I put my bag?" he wondered aloud, walking away from the Amazons, who kept him within sight.

"You are being silent, Shampoo, the sight of your husband made that much of an impression on you?" asked the smiling elder.

"Mmm... what? Husband? What is you talking about, Grandmother?" cried out Shampoo, back to reality.

"It's obvious. The girl that beat you is clearly a man in truth. So the Kiss of Death is null and void, but you should give this one the right kiss now." Cologne explained to the purple haired young girl. Shampoo's face showing understanding of this new situation... and it's consequence. A stupid grin formed on her lips while still watching the boy that was Ranko.

A few moments later, 'Ranko' walked to them, clothed again and his bag on his shoulders.

"I've been thinking some, while getting clothed, and the named I had up to now doesn't suit me anymore. Ranko is a girl name after all and I'm back to being a man, so I thought about all this. My spirit, which is the shadow of Ranma's, found it's own body, born by those flames. My name will now be Reika, the spirit of flames... Cool, ain't it ?"

"A name fitting a warrior... son-in-law." Cologne answered him, a playful smile on her lips.

"What do you mean by 'son-in-l..'" but Reika couldn't talk anymore when a pair of lips came against his own, compelling him to silence. His sight was then limited to the gentle face of Shampoo, glued to him in a passionate kiss.

When she let go of his lips, both teenagers needed some time to catch their breath back.

"Wo ai ni, Airen!" Shampoo declared without freeing him from her hug.

"Oh, I see... Kiss of Marriage, right?" Reika asked Cologne, strangely not that surprised by Shampoo's actions.

"You're right, son-in-law. And if what Shampoo told me about you and your brother is true, I'm glad to have you as my son-on-law."

"Hmmm... In a way, it's true that it was girl-Ranma, meaning ME, that beat Shampoo on your tournament . But then, Ranma and me were still one being. And I'm nothing more than the shadow of the real Ranma, I'm not a true being, if you think I am good enough for you..." Reika explained.

"You don't realize what happened to you, do you? Your old girl body died cindered, son-in-law. The one you have now is born from the magic of Jusenkyo that absorbed the power of the pill I gave you. That pill was made with the blood of a phoenix. And seeing the flames you were generating before you put them out, you gained the powers of that pill, augmented by the magic of Jusenkyo.  
If that two forces fused together to give birth to this body, then you have an unique potential, if you can learn to master it. It's the burning blood of the phoenix that is now flowing into your veins." Cologne gave him an explanation as detailed as she could.

Reika, still in the arms of his Amazon wife, had saucer-big eyes at this point, covering half his face.

(Phoenix blood? Unique potential? Girl body cindered???)

---

The walk to get to the Amazon village was silent as a tomb. Reika was trying to assimilate with little success what happened to him, Shampoo was already day dreaming about her coming marriage, and Cologne was thinking about the many opportunities her son-in-law had opened to him.

When they got to the entrance of the village, Cologne was bombarded with questions by the guards. All the village has been able to see the big flames that gave birth to the new Reika. The elder satisfied them with half-answer with just enough truth in it to satisfy the curiosity of the guards.

"Children, I must leave you a moment. Shampoo, look after your soon-  
to-be-husband, will you?" asked cologne to her grand-daughter.

"Yes, Grandmother!"Shampoo was glad to oblige the elder, grabbing strongly Reika's arm in her owns.

Not losing more time, Cologne walked to the matriarch council, she just HAD to tell them the news.

(I'll have some trouble not to laugh when I'll see their face when I'll tell them. I have waited so long an occasion to take them completely by surprise like this! Hihihi!) cologne was nearly giggling on the way, so bad where her mental images.

Luckily for us we can only see her back while she pogo to her destination and we won't have to watch the horror of a giggling old ghoul.

---

(I'll have to thank my son-on-law, I'm feeling so fulfilled.) Cologne was delighted to see the effect of her little bomb.

Reactions were mixed, going from incredulity : "Impossible!", to amazement : "Incredible!", passing by sheer stupidity : "A mere male?"

"Too bad this 'mere male', as you say, is already taken, my little niece Parfum is of age too." A matriarch commented.

"Well, he still didn't react to his marriage, maybe because of his brutal transformation. I suggest we get the ceremony done right now to guaranty his belonging to the village. I have no doubt his children will inherit at least some of the gifts of the father." Cologne declared.

"It's clear that it's an opportunity we cannot let pass. Even more so, we will have several phoenix among us, unlike the phoenix people that are just plain winged bird-people." Added another matriarch.

"Let us not start to plan too far. Saffron is and remain our biggest problem. Having our own phoenix might balance the forces. But Saffron is several millennia old and really powerful in his final adult form. Reika is just a fledgling, just born of the fusion of the magic of Jusenkyo and the phoenix blood stolen from Saffron long ago, used to create phoenix pills to resist his powers some. We are not yet ready to face the phoenix." Explained Cologne.

"Then we train our fledgling, we'll prepare him so we can win in our next war against Judendo." And so it was decided.

"But all of this will be as planned, for now, we have a couple to marry!"

---

At the same time, Shampoo was showing off Reika to her fellow villagers, boasting his martial arts skills and made some allusions about his powers.

For the poor Reika, all was happening so fast he didn't have time to think clearly about his situation, but he couldn't find in himself the will to whine.

He was a man again, his body a personalized copy of Ranma's, the only difference being his hair and eyes colors that would easily tell them apart.

In addition, he got cool powers and a unique potential, that wouldn't keep him from training twice as hard. This gift would need to be used only as a last resort he decided, or it would be slowing down his overall progression if he used it too much.

Add to this he was about to marry the girl he had in his heart and he was nearly sure he was already falling hard for her. This feeling was too strong for it to be anything but Love anyway, with a capital L.

Therefore, his mood could hardly get anymore up when Cologne announced the preparation for the marriage, the ceremony being held the same day at dusk. Shampoo could not keep her joy contained and hugged him with all her might, but her beloved surprised her when he returned the embrace with as much enthusiasm than her.

"Wo ai ni, Aiden!" Shampoo declared to her love in a sugary voice.

"Shampoo, I'm not yet quite sure but I think... I love you too." He answered to her declaration in a whisper.

Surprised by his own declaration, Shampoo moved to be able to see Reika's face, and the raw emotions she could read in his eyes told her all she had to know. She went for a hot kiss and was pleased when Reika was returning it fully.

The couple was paying little attention to the acclamations of their audience... until they started to seriously need some fresh air. When they saw they were the main attraction of the village, they blushed so much they'd have melted if you could.

---

Amazons have humble lives and focus their strength in martial arts. So, events like a tournament... or a marriage, were greatly appreciated and celebrated all night long.

Reika having little need of preparations for the marriage, he was mostly left alone while Shampoo was finalizing the small details.

Not knowing what else to do, left alone in Shampoo's room, he focused in discovering the 'how' of his flame powers. But no matter the degree of focusing, no flame nor rise of heat grated his efforts.

Far from being downcast, he continued to try to get his powers to work, with not a single sign of breakthrough. At the end of the day, Reika had at least learned how to work his usual battle aura, and could call it up at will without having to be under combat stress.

He noted with satisfaction that this aura at it's peak was indeed generating some heat, it only was a few degree yet but it still was something done today, he would soon improve over it.

On the other hand, his rebirth didn't have only good points for his body. Even if he didn't really feel the difference despite his obvious change of gender, he had lost the boost in speed that his girl body had, but without gaining back the greater strength he used to have as Ranma. When compared to Ranma, he'd be a little bit weaker but would have his flame powers when he'd have mastered them.

Suddenly realizing the day was nearly over and the ceremony was starting soon, his state of nerves went from calm to red alert, but it really reached it's peak when he heard someone knock on the door.

"Good evening, son-in-law, I hope you didn't change your mind because the ceremony is about to start, we only miss the groom." Cologne told him, clothed in a robe that seemed more fitting for 'official' Amazon business, but on someone that short, you could never tell.

---

'Different' would be a good term to qualify an Amazon marriage. The situation was from the start somewhat reversed, Amazons have a matriarchal society after all, so it was Shampoo that was waiting at the altar and Reika that would be walking up to her. Shampoo was dressed up in her best combat armor, a mix of pink and purple with some figures engraved in gold representing dragons and tigers fighting. She was also armed with her favorites weapons, the bomboris.

Reika was able to conserve his usual clothes, giving him a warrior look that was greatly appreciated by the Amazons, and was armed with Shampoo's sword. Even if he was a girl and still a part of Ranma, the Amazons remembered well the petite redhead that had defeated their champion in the last tournament and his casual clothes helped them connect the redhead to the groom. It was Cologne that walked him up to the bride, since he had no family anywhere near Amazon lands.

The vows where mainly the same he had heard about, with some addition of belonging to the Amazons and a more pronounced promise of mutual protection. Instead of rings, the couple had to exchange their weapons as a proof of trust, but the closure was the same ritual 'kiss the bride'.

The celebration lasted far in the night, following a rather long meal with all the village attending. The young couple had to excuse themselves when Shampoo left the party, dragging her husband to her home to consummate the marriage, no longer willing to wait anymore, making smile a large part of the guests, Cologne being one of them.

(Ah to be young again) she chuckled mentally

---

A lone shadow found it's way to the village, illuminated by a new day's dawn. Being himself an Amazon, he was not disturbed by the guards, too tired from the celebration to talk to a mere male.

And so he wasn't enlightened about the previous day's events. He could see that there must have been some hell of a party, a marriage even if the decorations were right, but nothing could tip him about the couple that had been married. He only got that piece of information when he got home. His reaction to the news would be heard in all the village.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

---

When Cologne heard the scream, she knew whose voice it was so she didn't lose any time and went to wake up the newlyweds.

(Why had this fool to come back from his training so soon? A few more day would have been enough for us not to be here at his return.) Cologne lamented while hitting on Shampoo's bedroom door.

"Shampoo! Reika! Wake up, we are going to have some visit in little time!" she shouted to force them to wake up.

"Hmmm... what's happening?" wondered a sleepy Shampoo.

"Mousse just came back from his trip!" Cologne informed her grand-  
daughter,

"WHAT! Already?" Shampoo's voice didn't have any ounce of sleep in it anymore. Cologne heard the couple putting on some clothes in a hurry. The door opened to reveal Shampoo clad only in Reika's red shirt not even half buttoned up.

"He just learned about your marriage and all the village must have heard his reaction to it. Wake up your husband for he'll have to fight for his life in the minutes to come." Cologne explained,

"No need, I'm already up". Reika announced, he was wearing only his black kung-fu pants. "Who's this Mousse?" he asked with a dark glare.

"A poor fool that had been pursuing Shampoo since they were two years old. No matter of much she refuse him, he never give up.

"He's going to try and kill me because I stole "his" place I suppose? I'm not scared!" Reika announced , focusing his rage in his aura in hope to wake up his latent power.

"WHERE IS HE?" they heard the shout from just outside the house's door.

"I am here!" Reika said loud to catch the aggressor's attention while opening the door, "and for what Cologne said to me, you're not welcome here".

"YOU DARE? AFTER STEALING MY LOVE WHILE I WASN'T EVEN HERE? YOU HAVE NO HONOR! PREPARE TO DIE!" Mousse howled just before launching several chain attacks.

Seeing that Shampoo might be hit if he dodged the incoming chains, Reika didn't move and used his aura to block most of the damages. Some chains encircled both his arms, another caught him around the waist and a last captured his left thigh. The pressure from the chains was hurting him some but it was bearable, the small cut he got on his right hand while deviating a blade was more annoying.

"You think Shampoo would have married me if she loved you ? You look like a moron I met in Japan, you're dreaming while waked up!" said Reika, diverting his opponent's attention while Shampoo moved away?

"Shampoo is mine! I'll never leave her with ANYONE ELSE! I'll kill you and then she'll be mine!" Mousse shouted, his whole body trembling with rage and hate.

"You call that love? I call that obsession! And she'll never be yours even if I were to die today. You are already too late!" Reika taunted, even knowing Mousse emotional state, himself hating this sort of reasoning.

"WHAT? YOU TAINTED HER? DIIIIEEEEE!" Mousse just went over the top and rained down on Reika chain after chain, all attached to blades and others nasty pointy weapons.

It was what the young phoenix was waiting for, he jumped over the attack then on the roof of the house where he'd have all the mobility needed to evade his enemy projectiles,

"YOU FLEE? COWARD!"

"Pfff... there is nothing cowardly to put yourself in a better position. I'm not the sort to let myself be nailed to the wall without fighting back!" Reika retorted, his aura starting to burn around him.

"No matter, today is the last day or your life!"

"I died yesterday already, gimme a break!" (Damn, It'll be difficult to get in close to land some hits, I need to find something.)

"Then I'll just have to send you back in hell!"

The fight started anew but Reika didn't have the mobility he needed, still attached to his attacker with the chains wrapped around him. But even restricted like he was, Reika was impossible to hit for the blind martial artist. Mousse seeing this, he attached his side of the chains here and there to block Reika, the spots were easy to find even with his lack of sight, he had grown in this village, a chimney here, the well there and Reika lost most of his freedom.

Reika knew he'd have no pain no free himself, provided he could focus a few seconds on breaking lose. Pity he didn't have them since it was just what Mousse needed.

Reika didn't even had time to feel pain when a sword went through his body, no missing piercing his heart. His head dropped like a puppet with it's string cut. Blood was running down his torso and his back.

"NOOOOOO!" shouted Shampoo, exiting the house and running toward her husband, herself surprised by the grief she was feeling. She turned her emotions over the culprit, never ever before had she felt so much hatred in her life.

"YOU MONSTER!" she screamed, ready to pounce on Mousse and have him suffer the same fate but she was stopped by Cologne's shout.

"Wait! Look at Reika! His aura didn't disappeared, it's getting stronger even, like yesterday." Cologne noticed the way the aura seemed to grow hotter by the shimmering glow. (Will this boy always surprise me like so?)

"Im... Impossible! I pierced his heart, he should be dead already!" Mousse moaned, not understanding the present situation.

"Sorry to disappoint you. You should have done your homework before rushing head down." Reika's said, slowly raising his head back up. With a swift move, he broke the chains pinning him, their resistance diminished by the strong heat he was radiating.

Afraid by the way things were turning down on him, Mousse moved back a little. The sword, still in his hand, worsened Reika's wound on it's way out, increasing much the blood flow.

"you're afraid? Good. You really shouldn't have tried to kill me. But people like you are always too sure of themselves. You don't even think about failure. But it's Game Over." Reika declared, his aura burning more and more until his blood itself ignited.

The flames grew until they absorbed his aura and burned all around Reika, giving him an even more menacing look.

"I can't really let you go unscathed, we wouldn't be there if it wasn't for your obsession to attack your betters!"

Raising his wounded right hand, he focused all his aura and fed it his anger toward his aggressor. The flames on his hand increased in intensity before taking a new form easily recognizable as a bird.

"It appears that I may have as much potential as one of you Amazons worst enemy. And I seems to be starting to catch how my abilities work. Taste my power! Fly, bird of fire, FLY!" Reika shouted those last words, projecting his flames on Mousse who didn't even know how to react and was caught in the attack dead on.

Mousse was projected over fifty feet, his clothes were incinerated and most of his skin was heavily burned. He survived the attack nonetheless but his near future was more than uncertain.

Reika, having made proof of his powers in front of all the villagers that were waked up by the fight, calmed down some now that his opponent was down for good. The flames dancing around him disappeared when his aura died down.

His wounds, still bleeding some, had started to cauterize with all the heat. In spite of his still pierced heart, he didn't seem to hurt all that much.

"Son-in-Law!" Cologne called him, approaching him. "How are you feeling? With a would like this you should already be dead!"

"I know. I thought it was the end when the blade went through my body." Reika acknowledged.

"You're alive, I'm so happy!" shouted Shampoo while jumping in his arms, locking hers around his neck, forgetting his still bleeding wounds.

"Gently, Shampoo, I'd better take a look at those nasty cuts I have there." Reika told her, holding her by the shoulders and slowly getting her to back off. He turned toward Cologne, his balance starting to fail him.

"At this rhythm, I'll soon be out of blood. You know something that could be of any help?" he asked his now Grandmother-in-law.

"Of course, son-in-law. Follow me inside, I think we lost too much time already!" She hurried in her home, followed by the newlyweds, Shampoo helping her husband to walk straight,

---

End Chapter 3

ok, sorry for the long waiting guys, having a job + playing great MMORPG can sure drain someone of all his time lol

I'm still unsure on how much time I'll be able to put into writing but I sure hope to not have to wait 6 months this time...

If anyone want to help me proof my writing on grammar, she/he would be more than welcome since my word processor can only correct spelling, and since I'm French, english grammar is out of my league hihihi

good news for those that loved my other story Cursed Gift (Xmen/ranma cross), I might have some idea on how to continue it some but only time and writing will tell us how long it can be, now the problem will be : where do I make chapter 1 start lol 1/ ranma training in the danger room, 2/ ranma arriving at xavier's school and meeting everybody, 3/ xavier coming at the Tendo's place to explain why he want ranma to his school .  
plenty possibilities and "there can be only one" that'll be written, sad ain't it :p

don't hesitate to mail me your thought or contact me on msn, I'll be glad to take some time to chat ;) 


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